“There are negatives that are overhanging [Washington] that will impede the economy that they should stop doing,” Blankfein said at POLITICO’s Morning Money Breakfast Briefing. “Obviously, one thing that’s impeding is just the poison anti-compromise environment in Washington that makes things very difficult.”

Morning Money takeaways

Blankfein said the improving deficit picture is among the reasons why there is a better outlook for the U.S. economy although financial markets have yet to fully appreciate the improvements that have been made.

“It’s a very low risk of the U.S. slinking back into recession, but it’s not zero,” he said. “There are worries on the horizon but a lot less than there were before.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are expected to face another partisan debate over the debt ceiling when the government nears its borrowing cap. The Treasury Department estimates that the deadline will be reached sometime after Labor Day.

The Congressional Budget Office said this week that it projects the Treasury will exhaust the “extraordinary measures” it can use to avoid breaching the debt ceiling by October or November.

With little action in Congress on legislation to boost the economy, the Fed has been attempting to boost growth and lower unemployment through a bond-buying program intended to keep interest rates low.

Recent indications that the Fed may begin to soon consider whether to scale back this program — known as quantitative easing , or QE — have contributed to the volatility in financial markets the past few weeks.

Blankfein said he thought the speculation over when the Fed may taper its stimulus programs was helpful because it allows the market to adjust more gradually than if there were an abrupt end to the Fed’s efforts.

“That kind of rattles the market in a less aggressive way, in a less jarring way,” Blankfein said. “So creating these doubts and creating these uncertainties is actually effective in the long-term goal of having as much stability as you can while you engineer a transition,” he added.

The business community, including banks, has been pushing Congress to move an immigration overhaul bill this year, but it remains unclear if the House and Senate will be able to settle on a package.

Blankfein said there are two important themes in the immigration debate, both of which he said can help the broader economy: giving those already in the United States a path to citizenship, and offering high-skilled individuals opportunities to stay in the country.

Lower-skilled workers “want legitimacy and health care and other benefits,” he said, “which by the way, also has positive effects on the economy.”

Blankfein said it was a “missed opportunity” that there are limited spaces in the current system for highly skilled, well-educated individuals to stay in the United States and work.

“There really is a common benefit to the country,” he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated the time period that CBO projects the Treasury Department will exhaust the accounting maneuvers it can use to avoid hitting the debt ceiling. CBO estimates the Treasury will exhaust those measures by October or November.